La Peuple Guidant Liberté

This sticker, created for the Over Alls Company, depicts a modified version of the allegorical figure Liberty in La Peuple Guidant Liberté (Liberty Leading the People) by Eugene Delacroix (1830). The original painting was created to depict the July 1830 Revolution in France when King Charles X (related to Louis XVI, killed in the French Revolution) was forced to abdicate the throne. In the original painting, Liberty waves a tri-color flag—the symbol of the revolutionaries and now the current French flag—to rally forward the people in their fight. Her facial features and nude torso remind the viewer of Greco-Roman statues, a nod towards the importance of ancient Greek democracy and culture. In this sticker, the tri-color flag is replaced by a facemask and the rifle in her left hand replaced by what looks like surgical scissors. In this new version, Liberty could be rallying the people to fight Covid-19 with masks and medicine.

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Sources:

https://smarthistory.org/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people/

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